Smells
eco-luxury
Famed movie director-cumaccidental hotelier FRANCIS
FORD COPPOLA uses his personal passion for details to create a jewel box collection of small luxury resorts .
By Jeff Weinstein , editor in chief
When Francis Ford Coppola was making “ Apocalypse Now ” in the 1970s in the Philippines , he fell in love with what became to him the beautiful , safe , lively and intoxicating jungle . At the end of filming , the legendary movie director and his family camped out on the beach of a nearby tropical island , and in the beauty of the moonlight he felt tempted to buy it as a retreat for his family . His wife , however , was quick to point out that he had recently bought a Napa Valley winery that needed his attention and that this particular island was too far from home . She wisely suggested he consider something closer .
A few years later , in 1981 , Coppola noticed the Central American colony of British Honduras was going to become the independent nation of Belize . He took his son and a friend to look around and happened upon an abandoned lodge . “ I peeked inside and saw tables and said , ‘ I could write here ,’ and that is always my fatal pronouncement ,” he says .
He bought the lodge thinking of it as a summer adventure place for his family . But over time he realized he had to buy beds , an industrial laundry and power , of course . “ I persisted with this idea that on my birthday I wanted to invite my family there , and it was a wish I made happen ,” he recalls .
Shortly thereafter , Coppola realized if he did not have a proper staff to protect his beautifully revitalized lodge , the jungle would reclaim it . With employees , however , came additional worries about how to support them . Because Blancaneaux Lodge was near a newly discovered archaeological site and people were interested in tourism related to the pre-Colombian
Riccardo Puntillo